Mercedes is developing an electric vehicle (EV) architecture called EVA for four EVs, reports Car Magazine. The first of these vehicles, a mid-size sedan followed by a mid-sized sport utility vehicle (SUV), is reportedly coming to the market in 2018. After that, the automaker is likely to bring a large SUV and a large sedan. The architecture will house an 880-lb battery in its floor. The first sedan will be sized between the C-Class and E-Class, while the crossover will fill the gap between the GLE and GLC. The larger sedan and SUV are said to be equivalent in size to the S-Class and GLS respectively. The EVA is said to be an offshoot of the automaker's rear drive MRA platform and all offerings will employ a 300kW electric motor to power the rear wheels. That said, the all-wheel drive (AWD) models will have another motor rated at either a 90kW or 150kW to power the front wheels. Prices are expected to start from USD102,000–116,000 and it is likely to have a sales target of 20,000 units per year.
Significance: The new report is likely to be an update to one released last year about Mercedes' Ecoluxe project, under which the company planned to release two sedans and two crossovers by 2019. The release year of the electric sedan coincides with the planned arrival of the Audi e-tron quattro. It is expected that Mercedes will shift towards alternate energy vehicles to meet increasingly stringent emission regulations. In December 2015, Axel Heix, director of product projects for SUVs and sports cars at Mercedes-Benz hinted that the company is planning to launch plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) versions of almost all of its high-volume models over the next few years.
